Rumi's Moses and the Shepherd- موسی و شبان

A brief synopsis of Rumi's Tale of Moses and the Shepherd

"In Rumi's tale about Moses and the Shepherd, Moses rebukes an illiterate shepherd for uttering a prayer to God that expresses his devotion as a naive desire to darn God's socks, rub his feet, wash his clothes, comb his hair, and pick his lice before sweeping a place for God to sleep. Speaking as the bearer of the Commandments, Moses (who is the prophet and the person most frequently mentioned by name in the Qur'an) denounces such prattle as blasphemy and harshly chastises the shepherd, who wanders off, deeply chagrined. But God reveals that by this action Moses has torn a servant of God from the presence of God...Moses then goes after the shepherd to console him, only to find that the shepherd's pure intentions have made him take this rebuke to heart, and have caused him to climb to a higher rung on the ladder of spiritual ascent.This tale presupposes God's love for his servants, and his willingness to overlook their shortcomings and to judge them by the spirit of their intent, rather than their outward conformity to the letter of law and dogma. Without the emanations of this divine grace and loving-kindness, all the eloquent hymns and praises, the subtle thoughts of humanity in description of the deity, would be so much anthropomorphic nonsense (Masnavi 2: 1800-1804). This grace flows from God to man not, for example, when he correctly performs rituals such as prayer, but when man's spirit is oriented God-ward (Masnavi 2: 1814).Excerpts from8-Part Articles on Rumi's Masnavi- by the eminent contemporary American scholar of Rumi, Prof. Franklin Lewis.

I want to help you, to fix your shoesand comb your hair. I want to wash your clothesand pick the lice off. I want to bring you milkto kiss your little hands and feet when it's timefor you to go to bed. I want to sweep your roomand keep it neat. God, my sheep and goatsare yours. All I can say, remembering you,is ayyyy and ahhhhhhhhh."

Moses could stand it no longer."Who are you talking to?"

"The one who made us,and made the earth and made the sky."

"Don't talk about shoesand socks with God! And what's this with your little handsand feet? Such blasphemous familiarity sounds likeyou're chatting with your uncles.Only something that growsneeds milk. Only someone with feet needs shoes. Not God!Even if you meant God's human representatives,as when God said, `I was sick, and you did not visit me,'even then this tone would be foolish and irreverent.

Use appropriate terms. Fatima is a fine namefor a woman, but if you call a man Fatima,it's an insult. Body-and-birth languageare right for us on this side of the river,but not for addressing the origin,not for God."

The shepherd repented and tore his clothes and sighedand wandered out into the desert.A sudden revelationthen came to Moses.

God's voice:

You have separated mefrom one of my own.

Did you come as a Prophet to unite,or to sever?I have given each being a separate and unique wayof seeing and knowing that knowledge.

What seems wrong to you is right for him.What is poison to one is honey to someone else.

Purity and impurity, sloth and diligence in worship,these mean nothing to me.I am apart from all that.Ways of worshipping are not to be ranked as betteror worse than one another.Hindus do Hindu things.The Dravidian Muslims in India do what they do.It's all praise, and it's all right.

It's not me that's glorified in acts of worship.It's the worshipers! I don't hear the wordsthey say. I look inside at the humility.

That broken-open lowliness is the reality,not the language! Forget phraseology.I want burning, 'burning'.Be friendswith your burning. Burn up your thinkingand your forms of expression!Moses,those who pay attention to ways of behavingand speaking are one sort.Lovers who burnare another.

Don't impose a property taxon a burned-out village. Don't scold the Lover.The "wrong" way he talks is better than a hundred"right" ways of others.Inside the Kaabait doesn't matter which direction you pointyour prayer rug!The ocean diver doesn't need snowshoes!The love-religion has no code or doctrine.Only God.So the ruby has nothing engraved on it!It doesn't need markings.

God began speakingdeeper mysteries to Moses. Vision and words,which cannot be recorded here, poured intoand through him. He left himself and came back.He went to eternity and came back here.Many times this happened.It's foolish of meto try and say this. If I did say it,it would uproot our human intelligence.It would shatter all writing pens.

Moses ran after the shepherd.He followed the bewildered footprints,in one place moving straight like a castleacross a chessboard. In another, sideways,like a bishop.Now surging like a wave cresting,now sliding down like a fish,with always his feetmaking geomancy symbols in the sand,recording his wandering state.Moses finally caught up with him.

"I was wrong. God has revealed to methat there are no rules for worship.Say whateverand however your loving tells you to.

Your sweet blasphemy is the truest devotion.

Through you a whole world is freed.Loosen your tongue and don't worry what comes out.It's all the light of the spirit."

The shepherd grew quiet.When you look in a mirror,you see yourself, not the state of the mirror.The flute player puts breath into a flute,and who makes the music? Not the flute.The flute player!Whenever you speak praiseor thanksgiving to God, it's always likethis dear shepherd's simplicity.When you eventually seethrough the veils to how things really are,you will keep saying again and again,